Cuauhtémoc Blanco

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This is a Spanish name; the first family name is Blanco and the second is Bravo.
Cuauhtémoc Blanco
Cuauhtemoc Blanco.jpg
Personal information
Full name Cuauhtémoc Blanco Bravo
Date of birth January 17, 1973 (1973-01-17) (age 36)
Place of birth Mexico City, Mexico
Height 5 ft 10 in (1.78 m)
Playing position Attacking Midfielder
Forward
Club information
Current club Chicago Fire
Number 10
Senior career*
Years Team Apps† (Gls)†
1992–2007 América 333 (125)
1997–1998 → Necaxa (loan) 28 (13)
2000–2002 → Real Valladolid (loan) 23 (3)
2004 → Veracruz (loan) 15 (5)
2007– Chicago Fire 62 (16)
2008 → Santos Laguna (loan)
National team‡
1995– Mexico 107 (37)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 26 October, 2009.

† Appearances (Goals).

‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 10 October, 2009

Cuauhtémoc Blanco Bravo, also known as Cuauh or Temo, (born January 17, 1973 Mexico City, Mexico) is a Mexican professional footballer who currently plays for Chicago Fire in Major League Soccer.

Blanco is the only Mexican football player with an award in a major international FIFA competition, as he won the Silver Ball and the Golden Shoe awards in the 1999 FIFA Confederations Cup. He has been awarded the MVP of the Mexican First League Division five times.

Although Blanco plays mostly as an attacking midfielder, he is tied with Ronaldinho as the leading Confederations Cup goalscorer. Blanco is the second leading goal scorer for the Mexican national football team and his debut team Club América; he is also Mexico's second top scorer in both the FIFA World Cup and the Copa Libertadores tournament.

Contents

[edit] Biography

[edit] Primera División

Blanco was born and raised in a poor neighborhood of Mexico City called Tepito, where he learned to love and play the game of football in the local fields. Growing up in a rough environment as Tepito, an area with a high crime rate, Blanco developed a style of play based on creativity and aggressiveness leading him to sometimes lose his temper. Blanco made his debut in the Primera División (Mexican First Division) in 1992 at the age of 19 with Club América. In 1997, Blanco was loaned out to play with Necaxa, and then in 2000 was loaned to Real Valladolid for two years in La Liga, Blanco returned to Club América in 2002, winning the MVP award.

In May 2005, Blanco won his first club championship as a player, leading Club América to its tenth league title, when Club América defeated U.A.G. by an aggregate score of 7-4 (1-1, 6-3). In the next three consecutve years between 2005 to 2007, he was awarded the MVP.

Blanco is regarded as one of Mexico's best football attacking midfielders and one of the league's most prolific scorers still active, with 151 goals. He has amassed 100 caps and scored 37 goals for his country.

[edit] International career

Blanco has played for the Mexican national football team in two World Cups including France '98 and Korea-Japan 2002, scoring in each one of them. He was a member of the Mexican national team that won the Confederations Cup in 1999 where he was the tournament's leading scorer with 6 goals, including one in the final. He was awarded the "Golden Boot" and "Silver Ball" for outstanding player of the tournament. Blanco holds the record along with Ronaldinho as the highest scoring players in the Confederations Cup with 9 goals, three in 1997 and 6 in 1999. He is also one of the top scorers of the Mexican national football team; nine goals behind the top scorer Jared Borgetti.

In the selection for the final 23 man squad for the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany, former Mexican national team coach Ricardo Lavolpe left Blanco out of the team. While the ostensible reason is that Blanco was frequently injured and not in good form; some people considered this to be a consequence of the previous year's constant bickering, due to on-going personal problems between coach and player.

Blanco became part of the squad that played the 2007 CONCACAF Gold Cup, scoring one penalty goal, and the 2007 Copa America, where he scored 2 goals also in penalty kicks.

He has since been praised for his influential performance and is now tipped to be a certain starter for the majority of Mexico's qualifying games, mostly due to his experience and current form with Chicago Fire in the MLS. On September 13 2008, the veteran Mexican playmaker earned his 100th cap for his country in its 2-1 World Cup Qualifier victory over Canada at Tuxtla Gutierrez, coming on with only 15 seconds left in regulation.

Blanco has returned to the national team since Javier Aguirre's arrival to the team in April 2009. He has been called up for the World Cup Qualifying Matches, in June 6th. 2009 he scored versus El Salvador, and in September 9th, 2009, he scored versus Honduras a penalty, Mexico won 1-0. On October 10, 2009 Blanco scored the 2nd goal in a 4-1 victory over El Salvador to help Mexico clinch a spot in the 2010 World Cup.

[edit] International goals

[edit] United States, Major League Soccer

On 2 April 2007, Blanco ventured on to Major League Soccer in the United States and signed with Chicago Fire. He was welcomed by 5,000 fans at Toyota Park as he conducted interviews with the media, signed autographs and greeted with fans.

He was later voted as a finalist for both the M.V.P. and Newcomer of the Year awards in 2007.[1] As of the 2008 season, Blanco is the second-highest paid player in Major League Soccer, after Los Angeles Galaxy midfielder David Beckham, earning $2.7 million a year.[2]

Blanco was the 2007 Sierra Mist Goal of the Year Winner which was his first season, goal came in week 20 against RSL.[3]

On 24 July 2008 during the MLS All-Stars vs West Ham United, Blanco won the MVP of the game with one assist and one goal, a game in which he only played 46 Minutes the MLS All-stars won 3–2.

[edit] Santos Laguna

On November 19, 2008, it was announced that Santos Laguna signed Blanco on a loan to play only for the Apertura 2008 Liguilla, after the injury of their Ecuadorian striker Christian Benítez. Blanco was formally presented to the press the next day, wearing jersey number 9, and stated that he looks forward to giving Santos a back-to-back championship. [4][5][6] Blanco scored his first goal with Santos Laguna 29 November 2008. It was penalty against San Luis goalkeeper Adrian Martinez in the return game which Santos Laguna won 2-1 and 5-2 aggregate score.

[edit] Return to Mexico

On October 29, 2009 Blanco announced that he would not be renewing his three-year contract with Chicago Fire in December 2009, and would instead sign for Veracruz, beginning in January 2010.[7].

[edit] Celebration

Blanco himself has accepted on Mexican television and to the press that his goal celebration is an imitation of the "Archer"[1] celebration created by former Atletico de Madrid striker Kiko Narvaez. In a 2005 interview with Mexican newspaper El Universal (Mexico City), Blanco explains that while watching a Spanish league game accompanied by his teammate German Villa, both players agreed to celebrate their next goal by imitating the "Archer" gesture. In the end, only Blanco did it, and jokingly reprimanded Villa for not keeping his word.[8][2] However, the Chicago Fire official website claims that Blanco celebrates scoring a goal by acting like the Prehispanic Tlatoani Aztec emperor Cuauhtémoc, "in order to show respect for the Mexican people, and their indigenous Amerindian heritage" [9].

[edit] Cuautemiña

Blanco remains remembered for the Cuautemiña (also spelt Cuauhteminha), or Blanco Trick, which he performed notably at the 1998 World Cup. In the trick, Blanco traps the moving football between his feet and jumps over an opposition player's attempted tackle, landing with the ball under control.[10][11] The trick is difficult to perform but is eye-catching and has been incorporated as a special skill into the FIFA series of football games.[12]

[edit] Career statistics

As of October 22, 2009[13]

Club performance League Cup Continental Total
Season Club League Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals
Mexico League Cup North America Total
1992-93 América Primera División 12 0 -
1993-94 4 0 -
1994-95 33 6 -
1995-96 32 5 -
1996-97 27 9 -
1997-98 Necaxa 28 13 -
1998-99 América 31 31 -
1999-00 36 20 -
Spain League Copa del Rey Europe Total
2000-01 Real Valladolid La Liga 3 0
2001-02 20 3
Mexico League Cup North America Total
2002-03 América Primera División 36 11 -
2003-04 38 20 -
2004-05 35 13 -
2005-06 28 7 -
2006-07 36 13 -
USA League Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup North America Total
2007 Chicago Fire Major League Soccer 14 4
2008 27 7
2009 21 5
Total Mexico 376 143 -
Spain 23 3
USA 62 16
Career Total 437 158

[edit] Honors

[edit] Club Honours

Mexico Club América

[edit] International Honours

Mexico Mexico

[edit] Individual Honours

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ "MLSnet.com: Press release". 2007 MLS award finalists & announcement schedule. http://web.mlsnet.com/news/mls_news.jsp?ymd=20071029&content_id=126642&vkey=pr_mls&fext=.jsp. Retrieved 2007-10-29. 
  2. ^ "Mr. White Gets to 100 Caps (Maybe), Walks Away". New York Times. http://goal.blogs.nytimes.com/tag/cuauht%C3%A9moc-blanco/. Retrieved 2008-09-21. 
  3. ^ Media Player
  4. ^ Blanco va a Santos pero sólo para la Liguilla
  5. ^ Blanco quiere el bicampeonato para el Santos
  6. ^ Blanco loaned to Santos Laguna
  7. ^ Cuauhtemoc Blanco to leave Chicago Fire for Mexico
  8. ^ http://www2.eluniversal.com.mx/pls/impreso/noticia.html?id_nota=72484&tabla=deportes
  9. ^ "Chicago Fire Player Bio". Chicago Fire S.C.. http://chicago.fire.mlsnet.com/players/bio.jsp?player=blanco_c&playerId=bla435579&statType=current&team=t100. Retrieved 2009-05-09. "Blanco is equally creative with his goal celebrations. To honor Mexican tradition and history, Blanco strikes the iconic pose of prehispanic ruler Tlatoani Cuauhtémoc..." 
  10. ^ Cuauteminha Intergoals.co.uk Accessed 06-01-08
  11. ^ Cuauhtémoc Blanco Bravo Accessed 06-01-08
  12. ^ FIFA 07 PS2 Tips WebWombat.com Accessed 06-01-08
  13. ^ クアウテモク･ブランコ

[edit] External links

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Chicago Fire – current squad

1 Busch · 2 Brown · 3 Carr · 5 Ward · 6 Prideaux · 7 Pause · 9 Husidić · 10 Blanco · 11 Thorrington · 14 Nyarko · 16 Pappa · 17 Rolfe · 18 Banner · 20 McBride · 21 Mapp · 22 Conde · 23 Dimitrov · 24 Woolard · 25 Segares · 26 Myrie · 29 Lowry · 32 Robinson · 34 Washington · 40 Dykstra ·

Head Coach: Hamlett Assistant Coach: Jeffries Assistant Coach: Matkovich Goalkeeper Coach: Shore General Manager: Klopas
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